Alfred edwin stove



(No Model.)

- A. E. STOVE.

DIVING DRESS AND HELMET.

No. 484,885. PatentedOct. 25, 1892.

UNITED. STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED EDWIN STOVE, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

DIVING DRESS AND HELMET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 484,885, dated October 25, 1892.

Application filed November 28, 1891. Serial No. 413.448. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALFRED EDWIN STOVE, submarine engineer, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at 14 Griffin Street,

- York Road, Lambeth, London, in the county of Surrey and Kingdom of Great Britain, have invented an Improvement in Diving Dresses and Helmets, of which the following is a specification. I

This invention relates to an improvement in the means of attaching the helmet and breast-plate to the upper part or collar of a diving-dress, forming the subject of a patent granted to me and dated September 1, 1891, No. 458,750.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a side elevation of a diving-helmet and breastplate and the upper part of a diving-dress with portions of the helmet and breast-plate broken away, so as to show the connecting parts in section. Fig. 2 is a plan of the upper part or collar of the breast-plate with the helmet and dress removed. Figs. 3 and etare enlargements of the sections of the joint shown in Fig. 1, and correspond, respectively, to sections taken on the lines X X and Y Y of Fig. 2; and Figs. 5 and 6 are perspective Views showing a further modification.

Similar letters relate to like parts in all of the figures. 4

In the arrangement and construction of diving-dress,heln1et, and breast-plate of the kind described in the specification of my aforesaid patent and illustrated in the drawings annexed thereto the upper end of the divingdress is placed inside of the breast-plate, and it has been found in practice that especially when the apparatus is used at considerable depths below the surface of the water the hydraulic pressure forces the dress against the chest of the diver and impedes respiration whenever the proper pressure of air inside the dress and helmet is not maintained. In order to obviate this inconvenience, I, according to my present invention, place the upper part of the dress outside the breast-plate, so that any excessive external pressure is resisted thereby and prevented from acting on the divers chest. In carrying out this arrangement I make the upper part or collar of the dress with an india-rubber flangeprojecting inward, the said flange being preferably provided with a fillet or lip, which takes into the recess or groove formed in the upper ring or flange of the breast-plate.

A is the helmet, and B the breast-plate; O, a circular metallic ring, forming the upper part or collar of the breast-plate and having a groove D formed therein to receive the fillet or lip E, surrounding the india-rubber flanged upper part or collar F of the dress F. The ring 0 is rabbeted out, as shown, and has a screw-th read H formed in the vertical side of the said rabbet. This screw-thread is cut away at three or more points equidistant around the circumference of the rabbet, as illustrated at I in Fig. 2.

J is a circular metallic ring formed with or brazed to the lower part of the helmet and having a screw-thread K formed on it corresponding to the screw-thread H in the ring 0. The screw-thread K on the ringJ is cutaway at three or more points equidistant around the periphery corresponding to the parts of the thread H in the ring 0 which have been cut away.

It will now be understood that when it is desired to effect the connection of the helmet to the dress and breast-plate the upper part or collar F of the dress F is placed in position in the ring 0, so that the fillet E enters the groove D, as shown. The-helmet is then placed with its ring J in the rabbet of the ring C by passing the portions of the screwthread Kwhich remain on the ring J into the spaces I in the screw-thread H of the ring 0, the parts of the screw-thread H on the ring 0 which have not been cut away corresponding with those parts on the ringJ where the thread K has been cut away. The helmet is then turned round about a sixth of a revolution in or on the ring 0, so that the screw-threads H and K engage with one another, causing the ring J to squeeze the upper flanged part F of the dress F firmly between itself and the ring 0, so as to form awater-tight joint. The fillet E of the dress F, being pressed into the groove D, effectually prevents the collar of the said dress from being drawn out from between the rings 0 and J; but in some cases the fillet E may be dispensed with, if desired. \Vhen it necessary to turn it back about a sixth of a revolution until the screw-threads on the ring J become disengaged from thoseon thering 0, when the helmet can be lifted out of the latter.

Instead of the screw-threads H and K, as shown and described with reference to Figs. 1 and 4, the arrangement illustrated iniEig. 5. may be employed, in which H* is a pin or projection formed on the external surface of the ring 0 of the breast-plate B, and-K is a recess formed on the internal periphery of the ring J of the helmet. The joint is made in this'case by passing thegapor openingfi of the recess K over the tpinzortprogiectionfifi by which the latter is allowed to enter the .re-. cess K*. The helmet is then tnrnedround, so as to ,bring the pin orprojection H*..into the recess K*, and the ringgJ iscaused to compress the india-nnbberflange F ibymeans of the slightly-inclin ed 'su rtace ,of therecess. It will be understood that instead ofv the .pin or projection H* beingxfornledbn thering O of the rbreastrplate and the recess K in the ring J of the helmet the pin or projection maybe formed on the ring J-of .theheln et and the recess in theri-ng GuOf the breastplate. Any convenient n-umberlof snchbayonetejoints may be employed in connection with one helmet and breast-plate. In the figure the breast-plate .is shownfinside the dress,as in the other figures of the drawings; but it will be understood that this .modi tica' .tion of jointis equally applicable i-ncases where the breast-plate-isoutside the dresses in my patent-of earlier date, vhereinbefore referred to. In the figure the joint is shown in section, and in elevation in dotted lines.

1. In a diving-suit, the combination, with the-helmet, of the :breast-plate provided with a groove, inwardly-projecting flange on the collar of the dress, and a lip on said flange,

said groove'adapted to be engaged by said lip,

substantially as set forth.

2. In a diving-suit, the combination, with the helmet, of thebreast-plate provided with .ALFRED EDWIN STOVE. Witnesses:

STEPHEN EDWARD GUNYON,

115 Gannonfltreet, E. ,0. Josnrn ELLIS,

6 .OhapeZvSt/reet, E. .0. 

